Marin Readers' Forum for Dec. 8

Blame it on the environmentalists that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar held to the letter of the 1972 Point Reyes agreement that called for the eventual termination of oyster "farming" in Drakes Estero.

Blame it on the environmentalists that Mr. Lunny has to move on, knowing full well in 2004 that he was going to have to in 2012.

Blame it on the environmentalists that his workers will be laid off in 90 days and that 11,000 Citigroup employees will be out of work before Christmas.

Blame it on the environmentalists that there aren't 5,000 homes on Mt. Burdell or that China Camp isn't one gigantic housing development.

Blame it on the environmentalists that there is all this wasted "open space" instead of condos, freeways or malls.

Blame it on the environmentalists that there aren't enough soccer fields or mountain bike trails.

Blame it on the environmentalist for everything else as they must be the culprits!

Christopher Rumm, San Rafael

'Provincial' IJ editorial

Friday's IJ editorial condemning the decision of the Secretary of the Interior for obeying an Act of Congress that conferred wilderness status on Drakes Estero, was breathtakingly provincial.

Since when is our little corner of the world, and its oyster eaters, the determiner of the fate of a National Wilderness? You decry the Act of Congress, yet can you say you opposed the Act back in 1976 when the Federal government conferred this highest of all protections on the area?

You cite your letters or emails in opposition. If there were a public, local vote today, the supporters of federal protection would win resoundingly. Because most of us value this singular preservation of wildlife and beauty, which nature hopefully will restore from septic systems and human squalor, far more than the dainty, questionable distinction between eating a Drakes Bay oyster and a Tomales Bay oyster.

As environmentally conscious and eco-friendly businesses go, they literally just don't get any better than Drakes Bay Oyster Co.

Rather than presenting it with a Lifetime Achievement Award for dedicated stewardship of Drakes Estero and accolades for practicing the environmental movement's Holy Grail of harmony in nature, the National Park Service slapped the ecologically sensitive, nearly invisible, virtually silent, community enriching, historic oyster company with an immediate termination decree.

How could they get it so wrong?

We all have environmentalism in our genes, in our DNA. We claim it as our birthright. When we are in nature, we get gooey.

But we — and that pointedly includes the NPS and Secretary Salazar — don't need to prove our conservationist bona fides by kowtowing to the shrill demands of perhaps well-intended but horribly misguided eco-Nazi zealots and their tortured definitions of "wilderness" and legislative intent.

You blew the call, Secretary Salazar. It's within your power to set things right.

Bob La Belle, San Anselmo

'Truly unfortunate'

It is truly unfortunate that the Department of the Interior decided to shutter the oyster farm, a small and very popular small business in West Marin that has been a tradition for a hundred years. Thirty people will lose their jobs.

Small businesses enhance our community and encourage people to live here. Providing products for local consumption avoids producing the green house gases caused by long distance transport.

I am very grateful that so many people in Marin fought and still fight to preserve our open spaces and wild creatures. Sadly, more warming and sea level rise guarantee that our open spaces will be horribly altered and extinctions will occur here.

Environmental decision making is more complex than before. Our small businesses are part of the solution. Instead of harassing the oyster farm, Marin would have been better off tackling the housing and transportation issues that cause our outsized carbon footprint.

Barbara Rothkrug, Corte Madera

More than oysters at stake

Congratulations to the eco-Nazis who have just destroyed a viable, taxpaying California business. Kudos also for throwing dozens and dozens of hardworking workers onto the unemployment line with its food stamps, emergency health care and a bleak future. Thanks to you, some will lose their homes and many will be uprooted.

It's not just those who work at the oyster farm — it's their families and West Marin small businesses who will lose out and in many cases be destroyed.

Shame on you for what you have done despite the fact the Academy of Sciences found no evidence that the oyster farm was detrimental to the ecology of Point Reyes or the harbor seals.

You know who you are — Ken Salazar, the Sierra Club, the National Resources Defense Council, the National Wildlife Federation, the National Park Service, David Mayer, Joyce Britt and others who have no heart or soul or compassion for the working class. I wish some of the forementioned elitist organizations and individuals would employ these poor people since you help them lose their jobs. Fat chance of that ever happening.

I am amazed that there are so many mean-spirited individuals and organizations in our state. Shame on them.

A. Greene, Mill Valley

Everything must go then

Well, if the oyster farm has to go, I want to see all gas stations, restaurants, canoe and bike rental businesses gone from every National Park, Seashore, and Monument. Even though I golf, I want all golf courses gone from all National Parks also. Hotels, tent cabins and paved roads also have to go.

This is stupid. National Parks have always maintained historic uses. There are working orchards at Capitol Reef National Park. Date farms in Death Valley that sell their products in the park. Gift stores in all parks that sell items from the park.There is a dam producing hydroelectric power in Yosemite and is run by an entity not even geographically close that steals the water from the park. Ken Salazar is an idiot, apparently, who does not even recognize the precedents already set. If this goes to the Supreme Court, Salazar will look like he never opened a book.

Carlo V. Gardin, Fairfax

'Big nasty government'

It is rather amusing to read the outrage from local Republicans about the big nasty government destroying the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. Well, what about the cherished Republican virtue of personal responsibility?

This is not the story of generations of hard-working families raising oysters for the good of the community. It is about an entrepreneurial businessman who relatively recently, and undoubtedly at a significantly reduced price, bought a business knowing full well that this could be a likely outcome. The original lease agreement appears to be very clear.

Mr. Lunny made a business gamble and lost. Should not that be the end of it? There's no do-overs in business agreements, are there my conservative friends? He purchased the business with eyes wide open and therefore must accept the responsibility of a losing bet.

Perhaps the conservatives would be better served directing their ire toward a failed business that will be costing the taxpayers a bundle in legal fees.

But, of course, blaming President Obama is much more fun isn't it?

John Neal, San Anselmo

No peace with 'greenies'

Now that the greenies have again successfully killed other people's livelihood, they want us to have "peace."

I hope that doesn't happen. It would be like saying now that the Nazis occupy France, let's have peace. It's like telling gays after Proposition 8 passed, let's now all get together and have "peace."

I hope we never have peace with environmentalists. They are destroying America and this oyster business is a microcosm of what they are doing nationwide. Never compromise, never reach across the aisle and never accept the hand of an environmentalist if they reach across the aisle.

Peace for them is accepting their philosophy. Peace for them is killing jobs. Peace for them is costing us taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Let there be no peace.

Robert A. Casper Sr., San Rafael

Reverse oyster decision

I have signed the White House petition to reverse the ridiculous decision on the fate of the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. I urge others who believe in what is right to do the same. Simply go to the oyster farm website and follow the link.

Ken Salazar's decision to close down the farm has had a very bumpy road since the beginning. We all remember the individuals from the National Park Service who lied and used half-truths to attempt to get their point across. The one that stands out is Don Neubacher, who was the director of Point Reyes National Seashore. He got in such hot water that Salazar thought it would be a good idea to get him out of there. Where did they send Mr. Neubacher? Yosemite. So here's the lesson for today kids: lie and tell half-truths and the federal government will promote you.

We all must remember. There was a provision to extend the lease. Bill Bagley's letter on Dec. 4 clarifies this. We also must remember that Drakes Bay was a "potential" wilderness area.

We need to protect the little guy and small business especially when they are doing no harm to the environment and providing a quality product.

Bill Wickliffe, San Anselmo

'What a crock'

Big Brother is alive and kicking. After close to 100 years they now say it is in the best interests of the people to close a small oyster business and return Drakes Estero to wilderness.

What a crock.

Please tell me how Interior Secretary Ken Salazar can decide that 86 percent of the people who live here are not able to decide what wilderness is needed at Point Reyes National Seashore and what they are willing to give up.

As I have said before, the environmentalists are just getting started. What will they go after next? This closing did not only affect one small business but many more. Seems to me that they should work hard on the farms. After all, the cows stink and should not be there destroying the wilderness.

I have spent 72 years here and with the oyster farm there it never crossed my mind that I was missing the wilderness.